Taxonomic uncertainty has long surrounded the identity of certain African Anthus pipits, particularly those breeding on the summit grasslands of high mountains and in contiguous woodlands occurring peripherally at lower altitudes. Forms breeding on summit grasslands, notably Jackson's Pipit Anthus latistriatus and the Mountain Pipit A . hoeschi, are seen as closely allied relict (refugial) species derived from a major invasion by an ancestral form likewise responsible for the present Richard's Pipit A . richardi of the Palaearctic and other allied taxa. On the other hand, the Wood Pipit A. nyassae, endemic to Brachystegia woodlands (Miombo), including areas adjacent to the montane grassland forms, is derived from an ancestor of the Longbilled Pipit A. similis (proto-similis), which adapted to a woodland existence during environmental changes in the Pleistocene and Pliocene. These three species now require general recognition ih the arrangement of the African Anthinae. In the Afrotropics, intraspecific geographical variation in pipits is normally horizontal in distribution, apparent altitudinal replacement of races of polytypic species on high mountains actually involving separate species. Keywords: Afrotropical pipits, Anthus, altitudinal conation, taxonomy, diagnostic criteria.